The Bismarck Tribune

When the Great Plains experiment station was established at Mandan in 1913 the idea behind it was to show farmers what could be done with dry land farming in western North Dakota.

But this year the station took the lead in irrigation to protect the trees, shrubs and flowers which have been planted to beautify the grounds.

The top picture shows a scene at the station in mid-October when workmen were flooding the ornamental plantings with water distributed through a big canvas hose. In the right foreground is a planting of peonies which has been well soaked, the water running away across the road and down the hill to the Heart river.

The lower picture shows one of the station workmen manipulating the hose which is used in the irrigation work.

No irrigation was done on the experimental plots, since the aim of the government experts is not so much to keep them alive as to see what they will do under natural conditions with varying types of tillage. Only the coming of spring will show how many of the thousands of fruit and other trees and shrubs at the station survived.

The probable record, however, is indicated by the statement of J. T. Sarvis, station agronomist, that 1936 was the most disastrous season for field crops in the history of the station. The only production was a little early grass, cut from some of the low places on the station property.